This invention relates generally to financial transfers. More specifically, the invention relates to financial transfers between subscribers of a financial transfer service.
Currently, businesses and individuals use two primary services for transferring funds to other businesses and individuals across international borders: bank wires and money transfers. Each of these services carries with it certain disadvantages inherent to each transaction, and problems to which bank wires and money transfers are susceptible may also arise in any given transaction.
Among the various problems associated with bank wires and money transfers are the high transaction costs because of the special nature of such services. These services also may require multiple days for funds to reach their destination, slowing down the commerce between parties. Furthermore, in some instances people may have to travel to a bank or money transfer agent to initiate and/or complete a transaction.
When problems with an individual transfer arise, possibly due to incorrect information being used to initiate transactions, more travel to and from the bank or money transfer agent may be necessary to resolve the problems. Bank wires and money transfers also often involve physical paper receipts, requiring a person to manually enter the receipt information into other accounting systems, or at least verify the receipt information is consistent with information on separate accounting systems.
Other problems that may exist using traditional transfer methods include lack of transfer fee transparency; lack of the transparency in timing of transfers; the need to fill out physical forms; need to submit information for the same payers and/or payees repeatedly; and risks associated with having payers know payee bank information. Embodiments of the invention provide solutions to these and other problems.